Like Water Through Rock

Martina Nehrling (1970) is an American abstract artist whose dynamic and richly textured paintings evoke kaleidoscopic worlds of pattern, color, shadow and form. Nehrling earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 1993, and her Master of Fine Arts from The University of Chicago in 2001. She has been a Visiting Artist at Bradley University, Peoria, IL; University of Chicago; and Columbia College, Chicago, as well as an Instructor at SAIC and a Lecturer at Lake Forest College.  Nehrling employs a highly developed, idiosyncratic painting method that involves methodical accumulations of abrupt, impasto brush marks.  Using pure, opaque colours, she projects a bold and vivid energy from her compositions. Each carefully placed mark grips on to its neighbour, forming hypnotic shapes and forms that seem to vibrate. The hard edges and geometric shapes make the work feel structured and architectonic, while sumptuously oozing trails of  paint drip freely, betraying an embrace of the accident, and a respect for the human hand. Nehrling is drawn to discordant forces, such as push versus pull; planning vs randomness; and plastic formalism versus sumptuous feeling. Despite the constructed sense of austerity she imbues into her paintings, Nehrling is constantly drawn to experimentation and the allure of the unknown. She lists amongst her inspirations contemporaries such as Shinique Smith and Julie Mehretu—two artists also interested in the visual and psychological effects of accumulation and chaos. Yet, Nehrling also cites Minimalist artist Ellsworth Kelly as an influence, as well as “the emotive materiality” of installation artist Jim Hodges. What all of these elements have in common is a restless interplay between dichotomous forces. Out of apparently paradoxical discord, her paintings build and build until a tone of anxious, tentative harmony is achieved.   #CURATORPILL Martina Nehrling (Chicago, Usa, 1970) is an American abstract artist whose dynamic and richly textured paintings evoke kaleidoscopic worlds of pattern, color, shadow, and form. Nehrling earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 1993, and her Master of Fine Arts from The University of Chicago in 2001. She has been a Visiting Artist at Bradley University, Peoria, IL; University of Chicago; and Columbia College, Chicago, as well as an Instructor at SAIC and a Lecturer at Lake Forest College. Nehrling employs a highly developed, idiosyncratic painting method that involves methodical accumulations of abrupt, impasto brush marks. Using pure, opaque colors, she projects a bold and vivid energy from her compositions. Each carefully placed mark grips on to its neighbor, forming hypnotic shapes and forms that seem to vibrate. The hard edges and geometric shapes make the work feel structured and architectonic, while sumptuously oozing trails of paint drip freely, betraying an embrace of the accident, and a respect for the human hand.